Moscow Vs. Heartland

Yeltsin, Calm In Capital, May Face New Foes

MOSCOW — Russia's nervous, cornered parliament schemed to stir up a public clash Wednesday while a confident President Boris Yeltsin strolled calmly along a Moscow street and a confused nation wrestled with its latest political crisis.

But even as the squabbling politicians were obsessed with plots to enhance their powers, the ground all across this huge country suddenly began shifting beneath their feet.

Key regional leaders whom both Yeltsin and his enemies had been counting on for support recoiled in disgust at what they regarded as just another needless distraction from Russia's crippling economic crisis.

Instead of taking sides, the regional leaders decided to convene a weekend meeting where they will try to resolve the crisis on their own terms-and, they hope, wrest greater control over local affairs from the disintegrating center.

"No one from the central government, from either camp, will be allowed to attend," said Vyacheslav Novikov, legislative chairman of Krasnoyarsk region and spokesman for the burgeoning regional alliance.

"There should be elections soon for both the president and parliament. And my personal opinion is, I hope none of these people survive."

The regional leaders, who have been pressing for months for greater economic and administrative independence from Moscow, are planning to gather Saturday in St. Petersburg as the Federation Council, a new pseudo-parliament that Yeltsin created earlier this month in the hope of supplanting the recalcitrant existing legislature.

The clout of the regional leaders is considerable, because they control the vast natural resources-and tax revenues-upon which Moscow feeds.

If they succeed in profiting from the chaos now reigning in Moscow, Yeltsin could end up winning his battle with the Communist-dominated parliament only to lose his fight to run the country.

Both Yeltsin and the parliament scrambled Wednesday to court regional support, a day after Yeltsin triggered Russia's latest political crisis by unilaterally dissolving parliament and scheduling new elections for December.

Yeltsin defended his drastic step as necessary to end Russia's debilitating power stalemate and usher in a new, Western-style democratic constitution.

The parliament immediately denounced it as a "state coup" and a violation of Russia's Soviet-era constitution. It declared Yeltsin to have forfeited his position and promptly installed rebel Vice President Alexander Rutskoi as Russia's acting head of state.

But Rutskoi's domain didn't stretch much beyond the littered grounds of the Russian parliament building Wednesday. His newly appointed Cabinet wielded no authority. Moreover, his loyal supporters numbered only a few thousand, mostly elderly Communists and ultra-nationalists holding a vigil outside.

Meanwhile, the rump parliament, under the leadership of Yeltsin's longtime foe, Ruslan Khasbulatov, quickly approved several resolutions that betrayed the delegates' edginess and could encourage provocateurs to stir up street clashes.

They decreed automatic criminal prosecution for any citizen who supports Yeltsin-and blanket immunity for any actions committed in defense of the parliament. Yeltsin supporters expressed worry that parliamentary forces, desperate to provoke public opposition to Yeltsin, might provoke a clash similar to the one last May 1, when Communist and nationalist demonstrators wielding clubs, rocks and iron pipes attacked Moscow police in a bloody street battle that left one officer dead.

The parliament also voted to seek the support of certain unnamed military units in a bid to split the armed forces, though there was no evidence that any units were heeding the call.

There were, however, several dozen machine gun-toting soldiers-all claiming to be volunteers-guarding the entrances to the parliament buildings.

"I don't want to shoot my comrades, and I don't want to die myself," said Sergei Kaumov, 34, one of the soldiers. "But if that's what's necessary to defend the constitution and the parliament, then I am ready for it."

Yet Yeltsin seemed determined Wednesday to avoid testing the loyalty of the demoralized Russian army by sending security forces to challenge parliament.

"We of course would not want and do not intend to use any violent methods," said a chipper Yeltsin, accompanied by his defense and interior ministers during his walk in central Moscow. "We want everything to go peacefully, without bloodshed. That is our main task."

The defense minister, Pavel Grachev, said he had had "negotiations" with commanders of all ranks in the armed forces and had received pledges of loyalty.

"They in turn held talks and meetings with all their unit commanders, who definitively declared full support for their commander-in-chief, President Boris Nikolayevich (Yeltsin)," Grachev said.